Winner of a 2009 Aurora Award 2010 Aurora Award Nominee Issue 11 Table of Contents v) Zine trades: If you produce a zine, I’ll be glad to exchange a copy of this Editor’s Corner ………………………….. 3 one for yours. Musings from s Seasoned Collector by Gregory Woronchak .……….. 4 To remain on the mailing list you have to Blackest Night pt 2 ...................…...... 5 contribute The Usual at least once every 2 issues. Movie Views .............................................. 9 Failure to do so gets you bumped from mailings. Montreal Comic Con 2 Report .................. 10 You’ll be reminded if you’re close to that point. Comic Thoughts …………………….. .. ... 12 Hey Kids, Letters! ....................................... 14 Rights: all articles, art and letters are © to you. Editor’s Corner (Continued) ......................... 20 In the case of characters and concepts belonging We Remember .............................................. 21 to others, rights revert to them and their Zines in Trade ................................................21 copyrights should be mentioned. The Original Universe is published 6 times a Contact: My e-mail for this zine is year on a bi-monthly schedule. Sample issues are [email protected] available for $3 Canadian, about the same cost as many comics. You can also subscribe at a cost My Snail-Mail address is of $12 per year. Jeff Boman The zine is also available free for The Usual. The 6900 Cote St-Luc Road #708 Usual consists of several options: Montreal, QC H4V 2Y9 CANADA i) LOC (Letter of Comment): This is the most common method, and Next Deadline: June 1. recommended even if you use the other methods as well. This is simply a letter to the editor giving feedback on the issue itself, maybe feedback to other contributors as well. This letter can be sent in e-mail. There are two content rules: a) try to be interesting. B) don’t start a fight with another or Letters: John Purcell, Lloyd Penney, Dario Sciola, several other members. I simply won’t publish Liana K, Steve Green, Jeffrey Allan Boman those. About the Cover:: Private Marks from The ‘Nam ii) Cover art: I always appreciate this. drawn by Michael Golden. Keep in mind not to use copyrighted characters without proper attribution, (c) 2009 by Marvel Comics. and keep art to PG-13 at most. iii) Interior art: “fillos” are a longtime tradition for zines: small illustrations to break up sections of text. iv) Articles: if you write something to share with fellow readers, I’ll print it. Please keep article submissions clean. Editor’s Corner === I spoke too soon about Keycon: as soon as I If I do end up going. I'll worry about my cat sent out last issue, I began one of the Royal Squeaky. She'd be sheltered as I'd be gone for Bank's High Interest (0.75%? Please!) E- a few weeks... thing is she's lost a LOT of Savings Accounts for it. weight. She doesn't seem in pain, not to have anything worse than her age catching up It's in May, and the Toronto Comic Con is in (she'll be 17 by then) but I'm still worried. March. I intend to go to that, and I suspect that the account won't be high enough for === both. I spoke too soon about my PC being all fixed Lodging costs in Winnipeg are high, even using up... hotels.ca to save some money - so it's still questionable. The good news: the new hard drive I bought in December is working well. Also good: most of The guest list for the Comic Con has many my system is working well. more non-comic creators so far... but the chance to meet old-time wrestler the Iron Not good though: the USB ports (powered by Sheik, and to meet Gil Gerard and Erin Gray will the motherboard) are not working. A friend be cool too (Buck Rogers was a big part of my tried to fix them for 6 hours, but it looks like I'll childhood). Newer 'zine member Liana K. is have to get the motherboard replaced. listed as a guest there too, and if member Justin Mohareb is there I'll have a chance to Fortunately it's under a replacement warranty see him too. -- but I hoped I was finally free of hardware headaches. === Until it's fixed I still don't have access to my Lliana piece or the story for the other specials Another huge 'maybe' for me: I've entered the unfortunately. DUFF race for this year. Lloyd knows what that is; it's not the beer from The Simpsons! === It stands for the Down Under Fan Fund. If I win I'm busy on the writing end again. Many LOCs I'll get an all-expenses paid trip to Aussiecon 4, for many different zines; at X-Mas I got the the 2010 Worldcon in Australia Labor Day. After Pocket Player's Guide for the Mutants and I'll be in charge of re-growing the account until Masterminds game to more quickly revise my 2012. sourcebook material. Turns out that my pub- lisher is giving up though, so I'll have to re- I have five other competitors (two are one shop my stuff... I also finished an article for my entry), but some of them may be more well- friend Chris Garcia's zine Annual. known; one of them joins this fanzine this issue in fact. We'll see who wins... this'll be the My publisher for M&M stuff has announced that furthest that I've traveled to date if I win! I'll except for yearly royalties (I got them) he'll be know after March 31st. It's just a fun race. getting out of publishing others. He'll give back rights on request, so I'll have to shop my work Update: I quickly produced a mini perzine to around again. Mean while I'll pitch work to promote myself for this. Because of the time I Polymancer Studios here in town. spent on it, chapters 5&6 of Avatar were postponed again. You deserve better than a rushed job. Update 2: I was the first person I'm taking part in this year's Script Frenzy. I'm eliminated. using the main characters I'll use in the 2010 NaNoWriMo. Different story, but this will help 3 me to flesh out what I hope will be series characters. Musings From a Sea- === soned Collector I'm also researching for the next story in my universe dealing with a character called by Gregory Woronchak "Statik" (I'm changing her name). It's set in NYC. I wrote only the first chapter - just Having said last issue that today's comics before 9-11. That event wiped out my enthusi- suck, I've decided to first explain why comics asm then; I want to regain it now. of yesterday were better. Ready? Here goes: === 1) It's all been done. The Golden and Silver Age (and the Bronze, to a lesser extent) of comics featured wild creativity; new heroes I also did my fanly duties: I sent in my nomina- and concepts were introduced monthly, stuff tions for both the 2010 Auroras and the Hugos. the average reader hadn't seen before. Plots that were fresh and startling have become The Auroras will be awarded at Keycon as I repeated and recycled over the years to the mentioned above (Liana mentioned it last issue extent that today's comics are simply regurgi- too). I didn't nominate us. If the zine makes it, tation. Compounding the problem today is the like last year, I don't want to influence it. (An glut of books flooding the market place. update: I got nominated again!) 2) Creators in the past were more creative. The Hugos were interesting. Our own Matthew Writers and artists had no qualms or fears and his SO Grace Seybold are both elligible for about introducing new characters and inter- the John Campbell award, Matthew for his first esting situations. Today, the very structure of time and Grace for her second and last. I corporate comics (where they've become a nominated them both, and hope they win. One product with the only goal of generating sales) of them, anyway. handcuffs any creative team. Clueless suits and marketing departments stick their noses in I also nominated Lloyd for Fan writer. I hope he the process, resulting in books that are incon- wins as well. sistent, politically correct, and appeal to the widest common denominator. === Creators hesitate to produce any material My nephew's 14th birthday was near the end without considering the dollars involved in their of 2009. 'property'; the goal today is to break into Hollywood with some lame, half-baked concept He's begun to give my sister teenager grief, that the hype machine labels as 'brilliant' and but he still treats me well, so I'm happy. avant garde (Nemesis, for example). Comics in general today are boring, and feature retreads === of tired stories and resurrected characters because the creators hang onto their original Hope you enjoy this issue. I don't know if it creations greedily. can top issue 10, but I'll try! 3) It used to be about the love. Creators used to try to break into comics because they had tremendous respect for the characters and medium itself; comics weren't a 'stepping stone'. Today, creators seek only to make a mark on any title they tackle, usually by tearing down the status quo with shocking 'events'. Artists 4 disregard previous models for a given charac- Note: Most of this is spoilers! ter, driven by the need to impart their own stamp on these icons.